Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Notes From the Tasting Room, Vol. 87 The Gift That Keeps on Reliving

With a fresh blanket of snow across
Westchester, it finally felt like the holidays. For many over at Captain
Lawrence, it meant an opportunity to reflect on the merriest of Christmas
memories—specifically, the greatest gift they ever received.

Whit Whitaker of Brooklyn may just be living his greatest-ever gift right
now. Technically, it’s a birthday gift, but when you’re born within 10 days of
Christmas, it all blends into one. Gal pal Sydney Tencer has taken Whit
on an overnight tour of the Hudson Valley’s finest tap rooms—starting at
Captain Lawrence, then on to Peekskill Brewery, with subsequent stops in
Kingston (Keegan Ales) and Cooperstown (Ommegang). [Editor’s Note: Hey
Whit—she’s a keeper!]

“I love tap rooms,” he says with a
blissful shrug.

He does indeed. Whit, digging the
Captain’s Kolsch, recently returned from a tap-room jaunt to the finest
breweries in Colorado, including New Belgium and Great Divide.

“I didn’t hear from him for four
days,” says Sydney.

“I kind of went dark,” admits Whit.

Sydney is enjoying the Ginger Man, a
seasonal amber ale brewed with ginger. “Holiday-ish, but not overpowering,” she
says. “The finish is clean.”

Whit’s tap-room tour is payback, in
a sense, for the greatest gift Sydney ever got: Whit had a pair of hi top
Converse All-Stars adorned with a miniature movie poster from her favorite
film—the French art flick “Breathless.” She beams when she speaks of the
custom-built kicks. “It helps when you have friends who are designers,” says
Whit.

At another table, Sarah
Colacurcio of Oxford, Connecticut imbibes with a pair of Larry
Pignatellos—senior and junior—of Danbury. They sampled the fearsome Frost
Monster and give the ferociously malty imperial stout a thumbs-up. “Deep” is
how Larry Jr. describes it—not something you feel on the tongue or even throat,
he says, but further down in the chest.

They discovered Captain Lawrence at
The Bayou in Mount Vernon recently, and decided to check out the brewery. Sarah
prefers the Ginger Man. Her greatest gift? A puppy! A miniature pinscher,
sporting a bow, under the tree when she was in fourth grade. “I couldn’t even
pay attention to anything else after that,” she says.

Dennis Vaccaro, Captain Lawrence doorman/beer chip man, too mentions a
canine as his most memorable Christmas gift—a cocker spaniel named Bianca he
got as a kid. For Doug Roberts behind the bar, it was an army tank that
shot plastic bullets—until it broke a week later.

“Either that, or a home brewing
kit,” says Doug, creator of the small batch beer #69.

They are frequent visitors to the
tasting room, and gift cards figure heavily into the current visit. [SPOILER
ALERT! If you are Chris’s brother, skip the rest of this paragraph!] Susan and
Chris are picking up a gift card for Chris’s brother for Christmas—and they are
making good use of a card they were given. “He’s a big fan of the brewery,”
says Chris of his bro. “I figured, he’ll be here anyway.”

Chris’s greatest gift was a Nintendo
when he was 6. “The ultimate,” he says. “The big box, hiding behind the tree.”

For Susan, it was a Teddy Ruxpin
teddy bear. Teddy, you may recall, moved his mouth as a cassette inserted in
his back told a bedtime story. “Hey, that was the technology back then,” Susan
says with a smile.

While everyone’s looking forward to
collecting a few choice gifts in a few weeks, Susan cops to missing those
childhood Christmases a bit. “You’re just not as passionate about gifts now,”
she says. “Something like an iPad is a great gift, but when you were little,
the gifts just meant so much more.”

True. But being a grown-up has its
perks too, such as enjoying a holiday Frost Monster with your mate.

Captain Lawrence Brewing, at 444 Saw Mill River Road in Elmsford, is
open Wednesday through Friday (4-8 p.m.), Saturday (12-6 p.m.) and Sunday
(12-5). The author is paid by Captain Lawrence, partially in India Pale Ale.

The “Notes From the Tasting Room” book is available at the brewery and
on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Notes-Captain-Lawrence-Tasting-Room/dp/0985632844/